President's Notes

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December, 2007

Dear Friends,

It’s hard to believe that our 2007 conference is behind us and the New Year is here. Thanks to everyone who participated and worked hard to make the 2007 conference a success. Brad Barton challenged all of us to find the magic in ourselves and use it to teach the students in our programs. Plans are already underway for the 2008 conference in Watertown. Please reserve October 3 & 4, 2008 on your calendars, so you don’t miss out on a great opportunity.

I would personally like to thank all of those members who took the time to give constructive responses to our conference evaluations. As a result, the board is pursuing solutions. The results of the surveys completed by our SoDakSACA participants this year are interesting and will help us plan an even better conference next year.

I am excited to introduce and welcome the new members of the SoDakSACA board of directors. Each of these individuals brings knowledge in the field of OST to the board. The new board members are: Billie Jo Bakeberg, Vice President of Governance, Marianne Freng, Northeast Representative, and Jan Stange, Vice President of Professional Development. There will be a short bio on each with their picture in the next newsletter, so you can get to know them.

I would like to thank the out-going board members for all their time, talent and hard work that they have donated to our organization. The out-going board members are Dani Beaubien, Kathleen Trower and Candy Kalil.

If you need help with anything or have a suggestion for the board, please contact one of the members. We are here to serve you and your programs. Remember, every day you make a difference in a child’s life.

Happy New Year,

Joan

Joan Severson, President

September, 2007

Dear Friends,

Welcome back to a new school year!  The students are all excited about starting a new school year with old friends, but are also excited to have the opportunity to make new friends.  For those of you who have established programs, you know that the first few weeks can be hectic and then the students just seem to fall into a routine.  For those of you that are starting new programs, it will be very hectic the first couple of weeks, but take it from those of us who have been there, it does get better and the students will get into a routine, with a little practice and a lot of patience. 

OST staff are a special group of people who deal with everyday battles, but they always land on their feet and hit the ground running to provide quality programs.  OST staff have a major impact in their student’s daily lives and help them become productive young adults, who will be the leaders of our future.  Thanks to all of you for building our future “one child at a time”.

I just received information that “Lights on After school” will be celebrated on October 18^th.  Please make plans to host a celebration at your program.  On this day, OST programs across the United States will be turning their lights on and rallying community support for their programs.  Let’s strive to make this the best year yet and let the public know how important Out of School Time programs are to their community.

Make plans now to attend the 8^th Annual SoDakSACA Conference on October 5^th and 6^th at the Holiday Inn Rushmore Plaza in Rapid City.  The conference committee has worked hard to fill the two days with motivational speakers and high quality workshops that will have you ready to “Imagine – Believe – Achieve” your goals for the future. I hope to see all of you in Rapid City!!

Joan

Joan Severson, President

June 2007

Dear Friends,

It seems like the year just started, and here we are in June already.  It just shows you how time flies when you are having fun.

My life has been very busy the past few months; I had a new granddaughter, Abby Mae on March 7th and a new grandson, Collin David on March 19th.  Collin had to have surgery at 3 weeks at the Minneapolis Children’s Hospital for 2 blockages in his kidney.  The surgery went well and he is doing fine.  This makes a total of 9 grandchildren under 9 years of age, my house is going to very busy at Christmas time.

I attended the NAA Conference March 19-23 in Phoenix.  There were a lot of great sessions and I felt it was a very good conference. Advisor Ann Erickson and I attended the Affiliate Leaders meeting on Tuesday, sponsored by NAA. 

There are a lot of things happening at the national organization, including working with a company for an insurance option for members.  More on that when we get the information.  Jan Stange, Brookings GAP and Rosemary Hayward, CCS attended a Train the Trainers on Advocacy, and will be bringing that training to our fall conference. 

We had a good number of attendees from South Dakota.  On Thursday evening we had a South Dakota get together in Gail Bultman’s room.  Thanks Gail for being a great host.

As the summer programs begin, I would like to remind everyone to have fun and enjoy the kids.  Because of the extended hours, summer can be stressful, but remember to deal with one day at a time.  There are going to be days when you have activities planned and you will just know that those activities are not going to work that day.  The best laid out plans should always be subject to change, it will make your life and the student’s lives a whole lot less stressful and everyone will have fun.

The summer months will fly by with all of the activities and fun outings that are planned during the summer programs.  School will be starting again before you know it, so mark your calendars to attend the annual SoDakSACA conference in Rapid City on October 5 & 6, 2007.  The conference committee is already busy working on a conference that will have everyone be able to “Imagine – Believe – Achieve” their goals for the future.

Have a great summer!!

March, 2007

Welcome to 2007! Wow! SodakSACA is seven years old and looking back, the organization has come a long way in knowledge and growth. We owe our founding mothers a big ‘thank you’ for starting this outstanding organization.

A special thank you to our board members that have left us: Karla Johnson for her years of service in many roles in the SoDakSACA organization and Laura Dimock for stepping up and filling a board position for the remainder of the 2006 year.

We appreciate all of you who have contributed to our organization, and we welcome new board members: Melvin Hill, Heather DeWit and Sue Burgard.

Your SoDakSACA board started off the New Year with a February ‘retreat’ which included a ‘visioning session’ the first evening, and our first board meeting of the year the next morning. Our mission is to promote quality out-of-school time programs for children and youth through professional development and public advocacy. To accomplish this mission, we all need to work together. We invited past board presidents to participate in the ‘visioning session’; and discussed where we are at as an organization, where we want to be in the future, and the steps we need to take to get there. The ‘retreat’ and meeting dates were set up to coincide with Afterschool Day at the Capitol on February 6th and Children’s Day at the Capitol, sponsored by SD Voices for Children. Both events were great—start now to make plans to attend those events next year!

Thank you for joining the South Dakota School Age Care Alliance (SoDakSACA). This organization was started as a resource to provide information and training opportunities to all providers in the ever-changing world of school-age care in South Dakota. Ever day, you and I have the opportunity to shape young lives.

Mark your calendar now to attend the 2007 SoDakSACA conference at the Rushmore Plaza-Holiday Inn in Rapid City October 5-6, 2007. Keynote speakers will be Susan Lorenzen (pre-conference session) “Teaching Staff to be Comfortable with their Authority”, Brad Barton (Friday evening) “Got Magic?”, and Malcom Chapman (Saturday cap note) “Future of Leadership”.

It will be a great weekend to “Imagine – Believe – Achieve”.